Elsouri, Mohammed ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9651-7770, Gao, James ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5625-3654, Wilson, Alister, Martin, Lancelot and Pyee, Robin (2021) Requirements analysis for automating product testing in aerospace manufacturing. Procedia Manufacturing, 54. pp. 222-226. ISSN 2351-9789 (Print), 2351-9789 (Online) (doi:10.1016/j.promfg.2021.07.034)

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Abstract

The Aerospace Industry has been undertaking strategic changes towards digital manufacturing. One of the challenges is the lack of rationalisation for a cost-benefit analysis of automating certain manufacturing and assembly processes within a customer order. The rigidness and complexity of aerospace lifecycle, and tight industry restrictions does not leave much room for high risk innovations in manufacturing and production lines. This research addressed this problem by investigating an automation adoption scenario with BAE Systems, Electronic Systems, which is a UK based aeronautical systems integrator. This paper reports findings from the general manufacturing industry via an industrial survey. These findings are compared with original findings from an empirical study carried out with BAE Systems within the New Product Introduction team to automate product transportation logistics in an environmental test facility. The paper describes the challenges particularly related to skills, and labour workforce required to manipulate heavy standing products in and out of a production line and how their requirements can be addressed within an automation solution package. The solution includes key design factors related to intricate handling of aeronautic systems via the gripping interface design, and the rest of the operational issues surrounding the testing objectives such as transportation, and test setup. The findings are presented in the form of a requirements analysis for businesses looking to automate manually-intensive tasks in the future, and provide some insights into the lessons learnt in the development of the solution to benefit UK manufacturing tactics to some similar challenges.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	robotics, automation, design for manufacture and assembly, aerospace industry
Subjects:	T Technology > TL Motor vehicles. Aeronautics. Astronautics
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Engineering & Science Faculty of Engineering & Science > Design, Manufacturing and Innovative Products Research Theme Faculty of Engineering & Science > School of Engineering (ENG)
Last Modified:	24 Sep 2021 13:49
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/33471

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